I agree with Newcollege, traditionally it is rare for an ROTC program waive an issue when their SA will not. I.E., if USNA says no, likelihood is NROTC will say no.
AF and Army are not as hard to come by for waivers when it comes to color deficiency.
He has yet to hear if he will get the waiver, so I would move forward because what if he does, but doesn't get AFA, AFROTC, USNA, and only NROTC?
I am sure you know everyone expects AFA this yr to be a blood bath since they have announced that the amount of appointments will be @1050, compared to just 2 yrs ago when they were 1350. AFROTC has always been competitive for scholarships.
Understand there is a difference in the PAR between the 2. AFA superscores. AFROTC does not, they only take the best sitting. Even with taking the best sitting their scores are the median of the AFA, and for Type 1 it is higher than the median, and in the mid 1300's. I believe it was 1360 for 14.
Scholarships are perks, and if your child really wants to serve in that branch, that needs to be understood why placing it into the equation. DS even if he didn't get a scholarship would have been in AFROTC, just a different det. because of the amount of merit being offered (back in 08 he got 100K from 1 school) which would have allowed him to go because once the FAFSA was put in he would have had a free ride anyway and they had an AFROTC unit.
Lastly, as I have said multiple times AFROTC scholarship is not a guarantee you will be commissioned even if you maintain their min gpa requirement, I believe it is a 2.8. In the course of 4 yrs DS has seen kids lose their scholarship while maintaining a 3.0+. It always happens at the same time...end of sophomore yr. AFROTC has a caveat in their system. No SFT, no commissioning, end of subject. That is why you see them leave and join AROTC in the fall of their jr. yr. AROTC does not have that caveat, but AROTC also does not guarantee AD and the AFROTC program does.
I do not know the selection rate for scholarship vs. non-scholarship, but nationally the rate is @ the 55 percentile for attendance to SFT. My assumption would be that scholarship rate is higher than non due to the fact that the gpa is on their shoulders from minute one, but I would not push it passed the 70% marker. Which would mean if the only way your child can attend that college fiscally is a scholarship, understand the devil is in the details in that contract. If AFROTC cuts him he would still have 2 more yrs to pay for without a scholarship. It is hard enough to deal with the emotional blow of not being selected, even harder if now they may not be able to return due to the financial burden.
Just things to ponder as you go further down the path.
Trust me 4 yrs ago when that scholarship came I thought "Great, all he has to do is pull a 2.8 gpa and he will get commissioned!" I got the
when he was already in the school that no SFT, he would lose the scholarship. Soph yr was a nail biter until Feb. It made the scholarship part feel like it was the kiddie roller coaster at your local county fair. The boards only get more intense as you go through the yrs., because now each time the stakes are even higher.